No matter what the political landscape, Outdoor Alliance has been successful at finding the line to build bipartisan consensus that has resulted in millions of acres of public land protections, billions in funding for the outdoors, better policy to address wildfire, and protections for important places.

2024 was no exception. With your support, especially through your direct advocacy to lawmakers, Outdoor Alliance helped secure protections for public lands, modernize oil and gas leasing to better protect outdoor recreation, pass the EXPLORE Act through the House, and successfully advocate for more recreation funding.

Learn more about some of the biggest wins for the outdoors in 2024 and how Outdoor Alliance gets it done:

Protecting more public lands

Protected public lands and waters are at the heart of great outdoor experiences. Outdoor Alliance advocates to strengthen and expand protections of federal lands. This year, we helped to expand protections for Berryessa Snow Mountain and San Gabriel Mountains National Monuments, adding 119,615 new acres of permanently protected land where people can recreate.

Passing historic recreation legislation

This year, Outdoor Alliance advocated hard for the EXPLORE Act, a bipartisan package of outdoor recreation policy that would improve mountain biking, climbing, and other outdoor recreation opportunities; codify and fund the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership; and see land management agencies focus more on outdoor recreation opportunities. The package passed through the House in the spring and we hope will become law before the end of the year.

Reducing conflict between development and outdoor recreation

In 2024, Outdoor Alliance saw many long-standing efforts to advocate for balancing recreation and conservation with development cross the finish line. With our analysis, insight, and feedback, the Biden administration finalized new oil and gas leasing rules that specifically screen for conflicts like recreation. They also finalized the BLM’s Public Lands Rule, which will balance the need for recreation and conservation on 245 million acres of BLM lands.

Investments in the outdoors

Outdoor Alliance advocates for better funding for our public lands and waters, which is becoming increasingly important as outdoor recreation participation grows. This year, Outdoor Alliance led an effort with 34 partners to advocate for fully funding the recreation budgets of the Forest Service and BLM. We also worked to address the Forest Service’s seasonal hiring freeze, and will continue to advocate for appropriations that specifically cover seasonal workers. Finally, Outdoor Alliance advocated for disaster funding to include public lands and waters when they are affected by wildfire, floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters.

Building a new generation of advocates

This year, Outdoor Alliance launched our Grasstops Collective program and successfully trained 20 grasstops leaders on advocacy, conservation and recreation policy, and leadership. These 20 advocates represent key outdoor recreation constituencies across the country and have developed strong relationships with their lawmakers’ offices that allows them to bring the voices of the outdoor community to better influence policy.

Throughout the year, Outdoor Alliance and our partners are meeting with decision makers to advance conservation and recreation issues. In 2024, we clocked 441 meetings with lawmakers (nearly two meetings for every working day), and sent nearly 45,000 letters to lawmakers about key outdoor issues. Our policy team weighed in on 35 different policy issues through testimony and letters to decision makers. And our California and Washington networks held a half dozen in-person gatherings with key lawmakers in their states. When it comes to outdoor recreation policy, there’s no other group tracking all public land policy the way that Outdoor Alliance does, and then connecting and activating people to make a meaningful difference

What you can do to protect these successes and create more wins for the outdoors in 2025

These successes are hard-won, made possible by collaboration, the Outdoor Alliance advocate community, and donors supporting our work.

As we look to 2025, we see many opportunities for improving access to outdoor recreation. We also anticipate challenges to existing public lands and waters. To continue our trailblazing work for the outdoor recreation community, we need your help. When you donate to Outdoor Alliance, your donation is used to track and respond to the most relevant issues facing public lands. Please make a gift in support of this vital work that helps keep you outside.

Protect the Outdoors

5 Big Wins for the Outdoors in 2024